The income tax (I-T) department recently came out with a book, titled Insight, in two volumes to help its assessing officers (AO) deal with different types of tax evasion cases from 12 sectors.
“The AOs have to assess over 150 cases on an average each year and meet various kinds of assessees like traders, retailers, builders, etc each day. They may be assessing hoteliers, diamond merchant and film professionals all at the same time. They have little time for independent studies and to understand intricacies in order to do justice to the assessments. Insight is an effort to bolster their knowledge and increase their efficiency,” said Prakash Chandra, a member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes .
The book has been compiled by 11 study groups formed by senior officers of the Mumbai region. Each volume simplifies trade jargon and technicalities. There are plans for future publications on fields like banking and finance, construction, film and media etc.
“We intend to study more issues like trusts, exemptions, deductions, SEZ, insurance business, etc, apart from technical issues like cash credit and recording of statements. This study will be published in a few months,” said chief commissioner PP Srivastava.
Director general of I-T (investigations) BP Gaur said, “I have been through the chapter on the diamond sector and it felt like I was reading a real life experience.”
